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The Plantin-Moretus Museum (a UNESCO World Heritage site) in Antwerp got a complete makeover and reopened only recently.

To announce the forthcoming opening, analog print factory Kastaar built two “printing bikes” – unique mobile printing presses. In the weeks before the reopening of the museum, the bikes showed up at events in Antwerp to hand print posters for people passing by.
And the collaboration with the museum hasn’t stopped since it reopened. Kastaar also designed and printed its own ‘product line’ for the museum shop. They selected some of the original 16th century wood block illustrations from the archive, and combined these with modern elements. They printed new postcards, coasters, seed bags, notebooks, calendars, bookmarks, aprons and a lot of small cards with typography… An additional reason to visit the museum AND its shop – if you ask me!

Lots of cool creative moms in our graphic design studio, so they immediately fell for this simple yet brilliant concept from Picture This Clothing.
Picture This lets children design their own clothes (currently just dresses). They turn their drawings into clothes that they can actually wear. Getting started is really easy! Print the outlines of the dress from their website, let your daughter get loose, send the picture of her design to Picture This and they make the dress. For real. So cool!
Since the launch of Picture This a few weeks ago, boys’ moms have been begging for a simple boys’ T-shirt outline as well… I guess it won’t take long for their dreams to be fulfilled! To be continued.

When we’re not working at Artoos|Hayez, we take on our other job: being fabulous moms/ dads/ aunties/ uncles/… 🙂 Especially during the summer holidays, we’re sharing cool ideas to keep the kids busy in a creative way. We might as well share some easy & fun stuff with you!

We’re in love with this book: Hirameki – Draw what you see, by Peng+Hu.“Every blot’s an inspiration. Every line is free. Unlock your imagination. Draw what you see Hirameki – ‘brainwave’ or ‘flash of inspiration’ in Japanese – is where doodling and imagination come together. Simply put, it’s the art of turning a random blot into something amazing, just by adding a few dots and lines.”
You can do the same with fingerprints as well, as seen in Ed Emberley’s Complete FunPrint Drawing Book:
Definitely something to try this summer!

This is also fun: shadow pictures to take on the beach (as seen on maluna.tumblr.com)

Naomi Okubo (°1985) is a Tokyo based painter who makes colorful paintings and stunning self-portraits hiding her face. Google her name, view the “image” results, and the colors pop off your screen! What an artist!

Artist statement: “The ideas for my work come from an inferiority complex and my experiences in adolescence. As an adolescent, everyone starts to care about how other people think of their appearances. In my personal experiences, when I changed my own image, people changed their attitude toward me. They started to concern me, and our relationship became better. I also realized the power of fashion and the fear of other’s watchful eyes. I have been interested in appearances ever since.”

We love the work of Jean Jullien. This French graphic artist is currently living in London. His witty work ranges from illustration to photography, video, costumes, installations, books, posters and clothing.

The first illustrations shown above are from a series of illustration on the theme of food for the show Petit Appétit, at Colette & L’imprimerie, in Paris; followed by some illustrations from his book Holidays.

Jessica tells: While everyone loved the site, as the big day approached the desire to make something awesome and printed grew and grew. We decided to make a keepsake to give out to wedding guests that included all of the artwork from the site on one side (offset & gold foil) and the full timeline of how we got together on the back (2 color letterpress and gold foil). The fronts and backs were duplex together with gold edge painting.

Émilie and Virginie (Les Miniatures) are two Paris based sisters who translate their love for antique textiles, vintage patterns and cross stitching into contemporary designs and colours. Their mom does a lot of stitching for Miniatures’ unique pieces, but their happy designs and patterns have also been licensed by French company Atomic Soda to appear (trompe l’œil style) on a wide range of products such as purses, boxes, and notebooks. Gorgeous!

As paper lovers, we are also recycling lovers – here at Artoos|Hayez. No wonder Precious Plastic got out attention.
After getting to know Boyan Slat, the Dutch student behind the ocean cleanup, there now is Dave Hakkens. He also is a bright Dutchman, and he invented Precious Plastic, a series of DIY machines that turn unwanted plastic into usable objects or raw materials. The machines can be made at home using universal materials and basic tools available around the world. Blueprints, a series of detailed instructional videos, the download kit, … they’re all available online, shared via open source.

If you’re looking for me: I’m cleaning out the garage to make room for my personal Precious Plastic recycler!

I’m afraid of heights. And of lots of other things as well. When I’m on instagram though, I’m attracted to urban explorers’ accounts. They climb skyscrapers and monuments, and take pictures of their feet, casually dangling above the abyss. They are chill and happy. I’m like ‘GET THE F*CK OFF YOU INSANE PIECE OF SH*T!!’.
Anyway, The Creators Project wrote a nice article about the fascinating urbex scene. A scene that makes you see the world, and some crazy people that inhabit it, from a truly unique angle.

Japanese architect Kengo Kuma always loved playing with building blocks. He got to design his own tsumiki for More trees, a foresty conservation organization founded by renown musician Ryuichi Sakamoto. These aesthetically pleasing tsumiki challenge your creativity. Basic design, yet endless possibilities… What’s not to love about it?

LA-based artist Jedediah Corwyn Voltz builds miniatures for films and other projects. It leaves him with huge bins of scrap fabrics, wood, … He started making little fantasy constructions out of that stuff, and that lead up to a collection of 25 miniature treehouses. Simply gorgeous!

Loving the work of Gianluca Gimini. Back in 2009 he began pestering friends and random strangers, walking up to them with a pen and a sheet of paper asking to immediately draw a men’s bicycle, by heart. He now has a collection of hundreds of drawings, and decided to do something with it: he rendered them as if they were real. Great idea. Great work. Don’t you agree?

Creativity is a strange thing. One day you’re bursting with ideas, other days it is The Big Void, and you’re stuck wondering what’s wrong and ‘if you completely lost it’. On the internet, you’ll find a massive amount of tips&tricks how to boost your creativity. These I find the most helpful… Maybe they’ll work for you too? 🙂

Restrict yourself
Force yourself to work within strict limitations. For example: trying to explain something using only 250 words and a visual. Your brain will come up with pretty amazing workarounds.

360° view
Don’t try to rush to the solution to your problem, but sit back and examine the problem in different ways. Try to re-conceptualize the problem. Tackle it from a different angle than the obvious one.

Step back
Take a step back. Handle the problem as if it isn’t yours. Create a (psychological) distance. It will make the problem more accessible. It’s like giving love advice: it’s always easier when you’re not personally involved.

Move
Staring at your screen won’t help you when you have a creative block. Exercise is important for creativity. Get your heart pumping. Move! It gives you fresh energy and puts you in a positive mood. You will see solutions much quicker.

Be inspired by the absurd
Our mind is constantly trying to make sense. Confronted with absurd things, it goes in overdrive, trying to work out what’s happening. So, if absurd situations tickle the brain, what more excuses do you need to watch a bit of Monty Python next time you’re stuck?

How do you visualize the feeling of anticipation? Photographer Aaron Tilley and set designer Kyle Bean teamed up to give us the answer in “In Anxious Anticipation”, a photo series for KINFOLK Magazine.

It’s Monday! Awaken your creativity, and get those grey cells working. Take this picture of a ginger cat…
… and doodle it to give it new adventures, just like the guys at Bored Panda did. They got these amazing results (definitely click and visit the site, because the pics below are just a very limited selection)… but I bet you can even do better! 🙂

And just when you thought you’ve seen it all, there is French photographer Léo Caillard with “Hipsters in stone”. A simple concept (dress up ancient statues) but what an great execution!
Visit his website for the complete series, and take a minute discover his other work as well.

About Léo Caillard (from his website): Overlapping photography, technology, and imagination, his meticulously crafted images combine a delicate intertwining of the new and the historic. Caillard invites us to rediscover & question our social environment with a lightness of touch, humour & sensitivity.

Inspired? This is the way Caillard worked his magic (as read on resourcemagonline.com): Caillard started by shooting the statues from afar. He then casted the appropriate models with matching physiques of the Greek Agora sculptures, dressed them in contemporary hipster clothing and shot their elegant stances in a studio space. The lights, of course, were adjusted accordingly to recreate the museum’s spotlight conditions. Through this rather strenuous process, Caillard arrived at the first raw shot of his imagination. Once the detailed shooting came to a close, all the images were sent off to Persani for post-production work for a second round of dreadful clicking.

Designer. A strange species. Buys food based on packaging. Avoids stores with horrible logos. Refuses to read texts in Comic Sans. Buys games that look good. Yep “look good”, not “look fun”.
So one of our designers introduced mozaa to the work floor. And lucky us: the stunning designed game is fun to play as well.
Viva mozaa, designed by Renske Solkesz!